is to be admitted as authentick, except it be demonftrated, as aforefaid.

Our Atheists or Deifts and our Enthusiasts who reject the Authority of Scripture, have what resembles the Scurvy of the Body, the Scurvy of the Soul, which gives a Man a Pleasure of tearing his own Flesh, fo of his Soul; he fcratches, 'till he brings on an Inflammation, and after till he brings on a Mortification: 'Tis a fuppofed Highness of Blood or Spirits, only to be kept down by proper Applications out of the Scriptures; often before it comes to Mortification, it comes to be a Leprofy, and is infectious. Dr.-—has infected and Dr.--Dr.- &c. When 'tis arrived to a Height, scarce any thing cures it but eternal Brimftone.

When the Heathen, at the laft End, knew nothing of the Objects of Worship; fo had no Religion, and by the Errors in their Ceremonies or Services, they had introduc'd the greatest of human Vices, fach as murdering and facrificing Children and Men, devoting others to Sodomy, and their Women, fome to Venery, others to Celibacy, &c. to talk of Morality, and of being civil to one another, was their laft Shift; and those who rejected their Gods, cried aloud for a Reformation,

formation. Many things have been perform'd, reveal'd and recorded fince, and many things more ancient, have been lately discover'd; their Cafe and ours, cannot be parallel now, we need no Succedaneums.

About this time many of the Ifraelites, firft turn'd Heathens, then were carried into Captivity, loft their Language, and almost all Knowledge, renounced their Aleim, and their written Scriptures, and began to forge Traditions, fo turn Apostates. At their Return in Neb. and Ejdr. when they were in difpute about their Genealogies, &c. and could not produce written Evidence to determine, they own they had no Tradition, nor any among them, who was infpir'd, fo as to direct and determine them in any thing in doubt, but agreed to leave it to the Determination of a Prophet who fhould arife, and have Urim and Thummim; we take them at their word, and submit every thing to him, and regard nothing, which they determin'd after that. They went on; and in this way, and in this ftate, made the firft Tranflation preferv'd, which is call'd the Septuagint; and twifted the Scriptures to ferve their new Scheme; and only kept a little of the Out-fide of E 2

the

the Service of their Forefathers, forged their Targums, turn'd Apoftates, and when Chrift came, who oppos'd their Views, rejected and caus'd him to be crucified.

When the Apostles preach'd the Old Teftament completed in the New, fince writ, we find the Heathens mock'd at the Resurrection; knew nothing of the real Effence, nor Trinity, and fuppofed their own Souls were Air, and were at leaving their Bodies to be admitted into the Substance of their Gods, which their Fathers had worshipp'd as their Aleim, the Trinity, the Airs, the Names. But the first authentick Account of Ifraelites, who pretended to worship any thing, but Jehovah Aleim, or the Names, and denied the Refurrection, and the Trinity of Perfons in the real Effence, is in Acts 23. A Sect defcended from one (Buxt. Lex. Chald.) Zadock a Difciple of Antigonus Sochaus their Founder, fo call'd Zadduces or Sadduces, of whom Acts 5. 17. the High-Prieft was one, Cap. 22. Paul in his Defence tells his Hearers, most of the City of Jerufalem, he faw a great Light from Heaven, the Emblem of Chrift-----and the Voice told him that he who fpoke, was Jefus of Nazareth, who

Paul

Paul immediately called Lord; when Chap. 23. Paul cried out Of the Hope and Refurrection of the Dead, am I called in queftion--The Sadduces faid, there was no Refurrection, neither Angel nor Spirit; but the Pharifees confelled both, and faid- If the Spirit, or the Angel had spoken to him, let them not fight against God. The Spirit was a fair Conftruction of the Hebrew for the Holy Spirit; the Hebrew ufed Malack, and the Greek had no other Word but Angel for the Agent, the Purifier, the Terms of the Covenant, the Hope and Refurrection of the Dead. He had frequently spoken to Men, so had the Holy Spirit; These were Terms and Facts well understood in all the Hebrew Scriptures: but not one Account that ever either a created Agent, or Angel, or a Spirit of a dead Man, had spoken to any Man: Befides if they had intended to speak of the created Angels or the Spirits of Men, which the Difcourfe admits not, both must have been plural; or at least, that there was not one Angel or one Spirit, and none of them could be he who fpoke to Paul, or be the Hope and Refurrection of the dead, which Chrift rifen only was. If the Terms had been fo, there might have.

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been Spirits and fome of them happy, without the Bodies rifing; and Paul could not have added Hope, if he had referred only to Resurrection, for he then knew to Senfe that Chrift was rifen; and the Term was frequently ufed both in Hebrew and Greek; befides we know and they all knew, that the Devils, who were evil Angels and Spirits were very bufy then and frequently spoke to, and poffeffed Men: fo they could not fay there was no Angel nor Spirit: and if they had doubted who it was that fpoke, how came the Pharifees fo readily to confefs both, and to say, let us not fight against God.-----It would be fuppofed Impudence to affert that the High-Prieft, the Head of the Church believed he had no Spirit; and that his Body fhould not rife again. But we know there were fome inclining to the prefent Traditions and Doctrines of the Apoftates; and this is one of them, who they fay, kept and handed down their Traditions. And as the Romans fold that Poft, fuch were the moft likely to purchafe; fuch Examples made Simon offer Money for the Power of conferring the extraordinary Gifts of the Holy Ghoft; if the High Prieft had believed there was a Holy Spirit, he would not have laid out his Mo

ney;